Ruminal and metabolic diseases of ruminants are very often presented in cows. Most of these diseases are developed in a subclinical form without manifesting evident clinical signs. That means the affected animals are found in an apparent good health-state, nevertheless the production may be decreased from 10 to 30%, without the owner's nor the veterinarians' awareness regarding that. As a rule, the first biochemical changes in the sick animal are presented in both the ruminal fluid and urine in a higher degree than in the blood, by this reason it is possible for the determination of them in the field conditions to use a single equipment that is of a very low cost.
Taking as a base the clinical record, the physical examination of the animals and the performing of single analyses in ruminal fluid and urine, veterinarians may diagnose most of these diseases in the practice, without requiring the sending of samples to the referral laboratories. Both metabolic and ruminal diseases (in a subclinical form), could be diagnosed in the field conditions with the proposed equipment.
With this equipment veterinarians will be able to diagnose in a different way sixteen different diseases in cattle, sheep and goats, using for this purpose just a very short time (from 15 to 20 minutes only).
Among the diseases which reference is made to, there are chronic ruminal acidosis, acute ruminal acidosis, acute ruminal alkalosis, chronic ruminal alkalosis, simple indigestion, putrefaction of ruminal content, intoxication by urea, ketosis, hepatic steatosis, left displacement of abomasum, right displacement of abomasum, ruminal microflora insufficiency in calves, dysfunction of esophageal groove in calves, abomasum dilatation and right displacement of abomasum in calves, left displacement of abomasum in calves and diverse inflammatory processes on the different animal species. The treatments that may be performed with the help of this equipment consist firstly in ruminal fluid taking (from 5 to 10 liters) from a healthy cow and the subsequent applying of the same to a sick cow, specially during diverse diseases as are the ruminal diseases, ketosis, hepatic steatosis, intoxication, toxemies and anorexia in general. In this way both bacteria and protozoa from the healthy cow are applied to the sick one in a treatment practically without cost. The equipment is also useful for the treatment on other kind of ruminal species as well as for the control and optimization of feeding rations; through its utilization it is possible to perform the diagnosis and prevention of:
1. Sixteen different metabolic diseases, both clinical and subclinical ruminal disorders on real field conditions, into a lapse from 15 to 20 minutes, may be diagnosed. PA1 2. It is possible to prevent the presence of metabolic diseases, ruminal disorders and related diseases (mastitis, disorders of reproductive apparatus, infectious diseases, low immunity and viability, and diarrhoea in calves). PA1 3. With the increase on the production and quality (of milk and meat) it is possible to lengthen the productive span of life of cows. PA1 4. The mortality percentage of ruminants it is diminished, that implies a great economic advantage if it is considered that out of the 34 million bovines with which Mexico accounts, approximately 27 million are addressed to meet production, 3.5 million to milk production and the remaining to other kind of purposes.
Authors as Paasch, M. L. et al. (1994) meat mention about the frequency of subclinical ruminal acidosis found in dairy cows with high production is 36%, and 16% with standard production. We may say that approximately 140 000 dairy cows suffer from ruminal acidosis in a subclinical form, only out of 700 000 cows with high production.
Along the course of this disease the milk production of the cow may become diminished from 10% to 30%, which is equivalent to an average of 3 liters per cow per day.
The annual diminution in cows with high production in Mexico due to subclinical ruminal acidosis, has been evaluated in 50 400 000 liters of milk (without accounting neither the losses caused on milk quality nor the losses caused by the diverse related diseases: affections of the reproductive apparatus, rumenitis-hepatitis, mastitis). On the other hand it has not been possible to determine the losses caused by other metabolic diseases such as ketosis, ruminal alkalosis, among others, but it is possible that these losses might be higher than those due to subclinical ruminal acidosis.
In beef cattle (27 million animals) the economic losses are higher and more important than in dairy cows, however the frequency of metabolic and ruminal diseases in beef cows it is unknown.
Most of the metabolic diseases and ruminal disorders in sheep and goats (approximately 18 million animals) may be diagnosed, treated and prevented with our equipment. Both ruminal disorders and the economic advantage of the usage of our equipment for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of metabolic diseases are very important, not only for the health of the animals but also for the production systems' economy.